July 30, 2009

Please help to help

Today I came over this article - it is a bout an abandoned cat that must have been treated very bady because her tail must be amputated.
Sarah Bohr, the woman, who feeds her is a friend of one of my best friends and has a blog, where we can see the littlle Kira. Go here!
Please have a look yourself and visit her blog and watch Kira. She is a very sweet black cat and needs help.
I know how it is to wish to help a cat - we have nine, all rescued from the street. And so I gave Sarah a little bit to help Kira and I hope many people will do so too - and spread out that Sarah needs help, this also is a huge help.

July 28, 2009

Great news

As some of you know since some days the member show at Ann Kullbergs magazine "From my perspective" is online and I am so excited, so thrilled and happy to announce that my wonderful friend Juno has won the first price for her pencil painting:

"Opulence"
by
Juno Kughler Carlson

Juno is not only a wonderful artist but a wonderful warm and caring friend and she deserve this price very very much.

You can find her website here:

She also is a good writer and if you want to read about her not even easy life, her father who also was a wonderful artist and much more visit her blog

It is well worth to visit both and to have a look at her amazing pencil portraits.

July 14, 2009

Honored?

Some time ago I started a request at STAEDTLER - you know - the pencil producers who make clutch pencils and the mechanical pencils I use.

I wanted to know some special things about their clutch pencils and the difference between graphite, polymere leads and their mars micro carbon. I received an answer via email with the explanation and a big compliment on my drawings (I added a link to my gallery at PPN)

And via snail mail a pencil!

Wow! What a really nice company! Unfotunately the pencil was not that good for me to use - it has a triangular grip which is not useful for me because I always turn my pencil some millimeters to have a sharp point at anytime. Except I ant to have a chisel edge. ;)
But the gesture is so great and I said thank you and explained them why this pencil is not good for me. I received an answer where they said that it is a pity and so on but they will send me another pencil to try out. Another wow!

Is this cool or what! But it comes much better:
They also asked if I would be so kind to make a drawing for their Bureau. Oh - and guess what I said...... Yes of course! LOL
Maybe this doesn't mean much but first it is only fair to gift them a drawing for they gave me two pencils (the second one isn't arrived but I received their second email yesterday) aaaaahaaaand - to have a foot in the door of or contact to a company that produces pencils can be helpful - or what do you think?

Here is the pic - it is an ATC done with their mechanical pencils with leads 2B, B and 5H and a kneaded and an electrical eraser.


July 12, 2009

A portrait

Last days I felt pretty much adventurous and good regarding drawing after repeating some excercises from Betty Edwards book "Drawing on the right side of the brain.". So I decided to try my hands on a self portrait. and I must confess that I am very satisfied with the result.

Of course I already posted it at PPN and my friends there said that it is a good sketch and nicley done, but I MUST work on achiving better likeness. Gosh - I was sooooooooooo sad...............

Do you all too think that I have to work on the likeness?

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:-)) ;-))


July 06, 2009

My artists of the month

Two nights ago I couldn't sleep because of a very loud party across the street and so many thoughts played around in my head.
I suddenly had the idea to show paintings and drawings of artists I like very much. I know many artists do so butI think it won't hurt anyone if I also have my "artist of the month". And because I ALWAYS must do anything in a different way I think I nor will have an artist of the month neither one of the week.
No. I will have two artists of the month - one colored and one monochrome artist. (ROFL - sorry for the play with words)
The artists for this month are Juno Kughler and Doreen Cross.

Juno Kugler Carlson
(color)

Juno Kughler: 'Indian Girl'


This amazing and outstanding portait is done with color pencils and ATC size (2,5" x 3,5") that she has sent to me. Because I'm holding it my own hands and have a real look on it I can say that this is one of the best artworks I ever saw. You can't see any pencil strokes, everything is perfect and I am very proud to be a owner of a "Juno Kughler Original"!
If you want to see more of her artwork or if you want to read about her you can visit her homepage JunoKughler.com or her blog Looking Glass hours. Btw - she is good writer too.

Doreen Cross
(monochrome)

English House by Doreen Cross


Dors also paints with colored pencils and other mediums but this month she is my monochrome artist. :) I love especially her house drawings like this one here:You can see more of her artwork at Dor's Fine Art and on her blog Dors Art. She has many wonderful drawings and paintings to show.

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I hope you like my choices for this month.
If you know an artist who should be the next "My Artist Of The Month" - no matter if it is you yourself or a friend or one whose artwork you like please send me an email at cp-art@t-online.de

July 04, 2009

New leads, new luck

Yesterday I received my CretaColor leads and I must confess that they are the cheapest here - and I like them best ever!!
It is real graphite, no polymere, no synthetic or whatever leads are made of. The softer leads like 4B and 6B are REALLY dark and the harder one like 2H, 4H and 6H are wonderful to blend and light but not scratchy. I love them!
The following pic is done with a 4B lead exclusively. I wanted to try our a Tromple L'oeil drawing for a long time but never had enough "yes-I-can-feeling" to start. Yesterday was a pretty good time, hubby had a nap and I felt like trying out my new leads on a drawing, not only on maling another grey scale LOL.

I used that 4B lead in a Staedtler clutch pencil (my favorite brand for lead holders), a pencil eraser which is also new and my beloved electric eraser on Hahnemuehle 'Nostalgie' (smooth sketch block).
The graphite lead was really really nice to draw with. I could achive dark deeps and also light layers of grey.

Of course this drawing isn't finished yet but so far it was huge fun, especially because I achived what I wanted to with this lead.
I don't know why I didn't like mechanical pencil - clutch pencils - before, they are wonderful easy to sharpen either with the F-C mini-lead-sharpener or with the Dahle lead sharpener, which I also have since yesterday.

Woooo - I had huge problems to figure out, how the Dahle worked and this let me break into perspiration. But close before I wanted to throw this d.... thingy into the next corner I noticed how I have touse it. So easy! But I needed more than 10 minutes to understand. Gosh - how can one single darkhaired woman be so blonde!?!?!?
Okay, I still have no idea for what the little wholes right and left are good for - but main thing is the sharpener is doing his sharpening-job - and it is doing this phantastic.